"Shortly after the Wii console was released, people in the gaming media and game enthusiasts started recognising the Wii console as a casual machine aimed toward families," said Iwata. "And placed game consoles by Microsoft and Sony in a very similar light with each other, saying these are machines aimed towards those who passionately play games.

"It was a categorisation between games that were aimed towards core and casual."

Unfortunately, the Wii was unable to bridge this incipient divide. Iwata even admitted that the Wii failed to meet the expectations of 'core' gamers. "I certainly do not think that Wii was able to cater to every gamer's needs," he said. "So that's also something I wanted to resolve."

So how will the Wii U stop itself from being perceived as another casual console? Well, Miyamoto believes that the Wii U's ability to output in HD will help.

"One of the key reasons that such things as the core and the casual exist today is that we decided not to adopt HD on the Wii console," Miyamoto said. "Of course, besides that there are things like issues with the controller and the challenges that it brings, network functionalities and many other things, but I think HD was the biggest factor that everyone was able to clearly understand the difference."

Do you agree with Iwata and Miyamoto? Was it the absence of HD graphics that marked the console out as a family-friendly machine? And does the inclusion of HD visuals and a more traditional controller change your perception of the Wii U? Let us know in the comments below.